Yesterday, I subway-ed downtown to the fantabulous Disney-Hyperion offices in Lower Manhattan to check proofs for Party Animals and the 100th Day, the sequel to last year’s Party Animals by Tara Lazar and me. This was my first chance to see the pages all splayed out together—very exciting! More on that in a second because…
Disney-Hyperion space is incredible! With the gorgeous 360 views and the gigantic common spaces with cascading natural light—my first thoughts was this is big sky country—can I stay here through the heat wave? A space as nice as theirs makes it difficult to focus on the task at hand, but in the end I managed, lol...
I’ve known my Art Director Joann Hill pretty much since I started my illustration career, but yesterday was my first time meeting our new editor, Regan Winter in person after she took the reins from our editor for book one, Sylvie Frank who moved onto a position at PHR.
As a freelance children’s book illustrator, you can sometimes feel like you work on a deserted island. That no one really gets the depth of what it is you’re doing…your intentions, struggles, and—especially with these two books—the inside jokes.You know, all the little details behind every project. What’s been so rewarding working with Joann and both Regan and Sylvie, is the care they have taken to observe, question/answer and appreciate my motives behind the gazillion micro-decisions that go into a children’s book. And like book one, 100th Day has a lot of details. I hope kids enjoy reading it over and over as much as I did drawing.
More and more I realize it’s the motivation behind the characters, their inner lives that are the jet fuel for me in creating compelling images for books. Something akin to method acting? And it's a pleasure to work with people who get it too. Here’s a cute snap I took of Joann and Regan as we began—as Joann put it, “Our proofing party.” I think the Party Animals would approve.
Party Animals and the 100th Day, written by the great Tara Lazar will be out in January, but you can pre-order a copy now for all of the Party Animals in your life here.
